Ultra wideband (UWB) technology uses base-band pulses of very short duration to spread the energy of transmitted signals very thinly from near zero to several GHz. UWB technology is presently in use in military applications and techniques for generating UWB signals are well known. Commercial applications will soon become possible due to a recent decision announced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that permits the marketing and operation of consumer products incorporating UWB technology.
The key motivation for the FCC's decision to allow commercial applications is that no new communication spectrum is required for UWB transmissions because, when they are properly configured, UWB signals can coexist with other application signals in the same spectrum with negligible mutual interference. The FCC has specified emission limits for UWB applications to prevent interference with other communication systems.
The emission profile of a UWB signal can be determined by examining its power spectral density (PSD). The PSD for ideal synchronous data pulse streams based upon stochastic theory is well known. Characterization of the PSD of a “Time-Hopping Spread Spectrum” signaling scheme in the presence of random timing jitter using a stochastic approach is disclosed in an article by Win et al; entitled “On the Power Spectral Density of Digital Pulse Streams Generated by M-ary Cyclostationary Sequences in the Presence of Stationary Timing Jitter.” See IEEE Tran. on Comm., Vol. 46, no. 9, pp. 1135-1145, September 1998. According to this article, the power spectra of UWB signals consists of continuous and discrete components. Discrete components create peaks in the PSD that may exceed the FCC emission limits even when the continuous components are well below these limits.
There is an ever present desire to increase the communication distances of communication systems. One way to increase communication distance is to increase the power used for transmissions. To increase transmission power while still conforming to the FCC emission limits for UWB signals, it is desirable to reduce the discrete components so that overall power can be increased while still conforming to the FCC emission limits for UWB signals. In traditional communication systems, scramblers are commonly used to reduce discrete components (i.e., data whitening). These scramblers, however, are insufficient for reducing discrete PSD components in UWB time hopping communication systems since the discrete spectral components do not result from a correlated or biased source data stream but are due to the repetition of pulses modulated by the same source data. Accordingly, improved methods and apparatus for transmitting and receiving UWB signals having reduced discrete PSD components are-needed. The present invention fulfills this need among others.